President Obama has appointed a record number of gays to his administration, data shows BY Sean Alfano
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, October 26th 2010, 7:46 AM
Obama has taken plenty of heat in recent weeks for not moving fast enough to end the military's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy, but numbers show he has appointed a record number of openly gay officials since his election.
According to estimates by gay activists and a White House spokesman, Obama has placed more than 150 gay men and women in various posts throughout his administration.
"It's both significant and rather ordinary," Michael Cole, spokesman for the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, told The Associated Press. "It's a simple affirmation of the American ideal that what matters is how you do your job and not who you are."
President Bill Clinton held the previous mark with nearly 140 gay members in his administration during his eight years in the White House.
The most prominent appointment thus far has been John Berry, director of the Office of Personnel Management, the agency that oversees nearly two million federal employees. The President also picked Amanda Simpson, the first openly transgender person to serve in an administration, as an official with the Commerce Department.
In recent weeks, the President has been roundly criticized by the gay community for not doing more to abolish the rule prohibiting gays from serving openly in the armed forces.
Despite promises to end "Don't ask, don't tell," Obama has asked a federal court to delay its halt to the policy. The President has said that while he wants the policy to end under his watch, he wants Congress to repeal the law, not the courts.
"For a community that is denied their equality, there will continue to be frustration at the pace of change," Cole said.
Still, gay activists seem encouraged at the progress Obama has achieved in less than two years in office.
"From everything we hear from inside the administration, they wanted this to be part of their efforts at diversity," Denis Dison, spokesman for the Presidential Appointments Project of the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute, told AP.
On Dison's website, he lists 124 of the gay appointees. The rest are not listed because they are lower-level officials who were not formally announced, Dison said.
White House spokesman Shin Inouye said Obama is proud of his appointment of officials from the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender) community.
"This number will only continue to grow."
